CLXXIV.

Would you have griev’d to have receiv’d   through Adam so much good, As had been your for evermore,   if he at first had stood? Would you have said, ’We ne’er obey’d   nor did thy laws regard; It ill befits with benefits,   us, Lord, to so reward?’

CLXXV. [143]

“Since then to share in his welfare,   you could have been content, You may with reason share in his treason,   and in the punishment. Hence you were born in state forlorn,   with Natures so depravéd; Death was your due because that yo   had thus yourselves behaved.

CLXXVI. [144]

“You think ’If we had been as he   whom God did so betrust, We to our cost would ne’er have lost   all for a paltry lust.’ Had you been made in Adam’s stead,   you would like things have wrought, And so into the self-same woe,   yourselves and yours have brought.

_The free gift._

CLXXVII. [145]

“I may deny you once to try,   or Grace to you to tender. Though he finds Grace before my face   who was the chief oifender; Else should my Grace cease to be Grace,   for it would not be free, If to release whom I should please   I have no liberty.

CLXXVIII.

“If upon one what’s due to none.   I frankly shall bestow, And on the rest shall not think best   compassion’s skirt to throw, Whom injure I? will you envy   and grudge at others’ weal? Or me accuse, who do refuse   yourselves to help and heal ?

CLXXIX. [146]

“Am I alone of what’s my own,   no Master or no Lord? And if I am, how can you claim   what I to sonie afford? Will you demand Grace at my hand,   and challenge what is mine? Will you teach me whom to set free,   and thus my Grace confine?

CLXXX. [147]

“You sinners are, and such a share   as sinners, may expect; Such you shall have, for I do save   none but mine own Elect. Yet to compare your sin with their   who liv’d a longer time, I do confess yours is much less,   though every sin’s a crime.

_The wicked all convinced and put to silence._

CLXXXI. [148]

“A crime it is, therefore in bliss   you may not hope to dwell; But unto you I shall allow   The easiest room in Hell.“ The glorious King thus answering,   they cease, and plead no longer; Their Consciences must needs confess   his Reasons are the stronger.

_Behold the formidable estate of all the ungodly as they stand hopeless and helpless before an impartial Judge, expecting their final Sentence._

CLXXXII. [149]

Thus all men’s pleas the Judge with ease   doth answer and confute, Until that all, both great and small,   are silencéd and mute. Vain hopes are cropt, all mouths are stopt,   sinners have naught to say, But that ’tis just and equal most   they should be damn’d for aye.

CLXXXIII.

Now what remains, but that to pains   and everlasting smart, Christ should condemn the sons of men,   which is their just desert? Oh rueful plights of sinful wights!   Oh wretches all forlorn! ’T had happy been they ne’er had seen   the sun, or not been born.